Road trip food update!....Home safe and sound!

Turns out the only "bad gas" of the whole weekend was what I put in the tank of my Dakota before leaving Carlisle.

The first 150 miles the truck felt like it had only 75% of it's power. Then when we stopped for a bite and a fill up we noticed some nasty rattling noises from the catylitic (sp) converter. After the fill-up the truck was back to full power, but I think the cat is toast.

Oh well, Kevin and I got home safe.

The weekend exceeded all expectations. Everything was great; the cars, the weather, but especially the people.

It was fun to see many of the cars that inspired me during the build and meet folks who helped me out when I had questions over the last 2 years.

Thanks to Bruce, Alan and their families for doing the heavy lifting!


Jerome


PS: I took 148 pictures. Stay tuned boys and girls!

Glad you made it back. Heck, it seems like you just left. BTW none of us won the car.(dam!) we were close though! Was a hoot meeting you(and coolcar) and Kevin. Had mucho fun hangin. Tell Kevin I'll fix him up with that blue/flake Bradley next year.

Another hotrodder

BD

Jerome,

Thanks for a great time. What are these cars everyone keeps talking about?

Jerome,

Glad to hear you made it safely. I was concerned with all the severe weather running through those areas lately. Great time, glad you guys could make it.

Thanks Bruce,

The whether was nice the whole ride home.

Jody, they were our means of transportation of adult beverages.




Jerome

BTW: Shouldn't I be in bed?!?

Mike and Jos

I wonder if "Woody" ever got together with Debbie?? I heard she has really sweet bunz.

BD

Glad to hear all is well on your return trip Mike. Good to meet you and Josee!!

BD

Dad and I made it back in one piece to Rhode Island (although SOAKED) last night around 9pm or so. I think I was back home around 11.30pm after unloading, dropping off the trailer, and driving back to my house.

For those of you who might have been watching the weather, you may have noticed a band of pretty heavy rain that moved up the coast yesterday. Conveniently enough, you could have used that to track our progress through the entire ride home.

Ugh.

In any case, I have tons of pictures I'll toss up really quick this morning on a site, and when I get more emailed to me (nichols@theta.net) I'll not only add those, but clean up the locations, names, etc of the site I'll put up this morning.

Chris

Chris, Gordon, Mike and Josee,

Ive been watching the weather in the northeast, north and northwest and it has been a little crazy. The weather channel just reported there have been 110 tornadoes reported in the midwest, plus flooding! There's some severe weather heading in the Nichols' direction as I'm writing this. Glad to hear you made it home okay.

It was great meeting everyone. We only had to drive 90 minutes to get home and we're whipped, you must be really tired. I'm anxious to see the pictures, especially the ones from Saturday. Thanks for bringing all the "refreshments".

Here we go!

Obviously each of these needs an "h t t p : / /" in front of it (without spaces).

www.theta.net/~nichols/speedster/carlisle04/Page_1.html

There is a link at the bottom to scroll through the different pages of pictures.

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!

Here are a few teaser videos:

Jerome, his brother, and his Speedster on the way to dinner (before he was accosted by 2110s):

www.theta.net/~nichols/speedster/carlisle04/jerome_stoplight.MPG

and here's a little 356 flyby:

www.theta.net/~nichols/speedster/carlisle04/356flyby.MPG

Enjoy!!

Chris

Yeah, Poor Jerome has been agonizing for a while over whether he should upgrade to something larger than his 1,600. So we're heading to dinner, Jerome in front, followed by me and Carey Hines in our 2110's. Jerome pulls up to a light, foolishly leaving a lane empty to the left, so we pull alongside and Carey pulls in behind me. We're all listening to Jerome's killer stereo at the light (Damn! That thing is NICE!)

Light changes.......

Both lanes take off like bats out of hell.........

The sound of Jerome's killer stereo is fading behind as BOTH the 2110's leave him in the dust (although he was doing a damn good job of trying to keep up!!) Caught up with us at the next light (we knew he was back there because the music returned). Both Jerome and his brother laughing like nuts.......

The trip home.........
We hit really heavy rain in Mahwah, New Jersey, and it remained with us all the way home - over 4 hours of rain. Remember me? The guy without a top? Well, I've now joined the Nic Rupert club of bailing out my Speedy. Had maybe a couple of gallons in the floor areas, although we had tarped the sheepskin seats so they were only damp, and the rear tonneau kept that area dry, too. Got everything sponged out now, and am really now in the market for a convertible windshield frame bow to fit a CMC or VS so I can mount my top. Enough of this!

Remember when I told someone that all rain goes right over a Speedy at speeds over 60 MPH? That's true, but when it's an absolute downpour and everyone slows to 45 or less, that rain just pours right in. Oh well.....it's only carpet and it'll dry by next week! (if the sun ever comes out this week......)

No mishaps on the trip home other than the rain......lots of cars just about driving out of their lane looking at the car on the trailer and the truckers were pretty good about making traffic holes for us.

Oh! And that gas/diesel mix we had after pumping that other car's tank was accepted at the truck stop near the hotel ("Sure, we can take that! We're certified to take that kind of waste!" They even had a special place for it (just don't smoke nearby....)

Let me tell you, though, we didn't mind the rain, and I certainly don't mind the cleanup afterwards, because Chris and I had the best weekend we could imagine. This is an absolutely terrific group of people (one of the wives of the NJRCC was overheard at dinner saying: "I can't get over this - 80 people who don't know each other getting together like they're at a family reunion! This Speedster group is one nice bunch of folks!") THAT felt good.....

Thanks, Bruce and Alan, for all you put into this to make it a success.

Thanks, Rocky and the NJRCC for hosting us - you guys are the best!

What terrific weather! Upper 80's, clear and sunny.....wow!

Gordon

Seems to me after viewing these Pic's and having been to the Knotts
show, that the eastcoasters prefer the flair bodys over the traditional one, and that their personalities are more noticeable
in their cars than the westcoasters.
Is it me or do others see the same thing......
By the way, Love the Pink speedster.........or whatever that color is...would like to see more pic's of that one......
Can't show the wife of course, pink is her favorite color......
Great pic's.....Thanks for sharing..............

Vince,

Actually, I would estimate that there were a few more "Traditional" ones there than the JLo's.

Every car there was awesome, each one had personal details that reflected their respective owners.

What a blast!

Jerome

Ok damn it, back to work. You guys will get me fired then I won't be able to afford my 2110!

Some further comments from a right seater...

While I spent the most time with Jerome and Kevin (the four of us just had a hoot hanging around together most of the time), the group as a whole was even better than I expected after lurking around on the forums for the past few months. A lot of people recognized me as the guy with the Eclipsesicle (from the photos of my icy cocoon of a garage when the pipe burst in the below zero temperatures this past winter), so it was very nice to finally put some faces behind all of the names and online personalities.

The group of owners and their guests was nothing short of heartwarming. To expand on the comment Dad mentioned above from one of the wives, she had spoken of how it was so amazing to see so many people that had never met in person get along so well, with absolutely -->ZERO<-- personality conflicts. There was no ego to get past with anyone, no one was trying to one-up anyone else (except for East Coast's wife at the gokart tracks, when she mopped the floor with the lot of us - I still want a rematch!!), and everyone was there just to hang out, talk about these little cars they've put so much effort into.

The personality of each owner, as has been mentioned, was very evident in each of the cars. No car demonstrated this more (in my opinion) than Jerome's. His attention to every little detail was absolutely exceptional, and like the rest of the car owners represented at Carlisle, sold himself short on how far his car has come and how well it came out. You guys are way too modest! :)

It was also nice to be able to strike up a conversation with just about anyone, and have a feeling of familiarity already. It wasn't so much a car meet as a reunion, and credit goes to all of the organizers already mentioned (Bruce, Alan, NJRC, etc), but also to the person that made a lot of this possible online - Theron!

I post to a lot of different forums, and this one by far is the closest in real life to what it exists as online. I heard a number of people comparing speedsterowners.com to the neighborhood bar, because you go there and everyone just hangs out. This past weekend was absolutely an extension of that (and the fact that we had lots of beer probably helped, too!).

You're damn skippy I'll be back next year with Dad, and maybe in a few years with my own replica, even though I'll be shunned over to the Cobra aisles. :)

Chris

Chris,

East Coast Norma said I should tell you she "humbly" accepts the challenge!

Ya, ya, you guys may be faster, but who was shining who's car Sunday morning?



Seriosly,

Gordon and Chris, you guys are class A. Both Kevin and I really enjoyed your company.


Jerome

BTW: Vince, the color was more of a peach. I took a bunch of photos of Tony's car. They personalized their car with a bunch of "street rod" details. I can only post a few photos at a time because I really should be working.

Vince and others:

Don't now what you all found at Knott's, but every single car at Carlisle was different in some way, some subtle and many not-so-subtle.

Jerome's is a work of art in thoughtful workmanship, Carl Macklin's is a purist's dream, and so is George B's, Tony's pinky-coral custom was outstanding right down to the painted-on cat's paws up the hood, onto the windshield and copied, stitched into the interior (and that's just the beginning on his car), Bruce's faux-race car was a knock-out, Stacey's was a purist when you first look at it, but has a lot of custom touches (and he DRIVES it a lot) and so on.....I could go on and on. All of these cars (and, I'm sure, all of those at Knott's) were different from one another and made so by their owners as personal touches. These were only a few of the 50 or so cars there, some of them outstanding, some works-in-progress and some very comfortable to their owners (you could tell).

The best thing, though, was that we were all there, we were all best friends, and we made the statement, on BOTH coasts, that there are a LOT more Speedsters out there than anyone realized before.

Thanks to the organizers from both coasts - you guys probably did more for this hobby in the past month than has been done for years.

Gordon

Like Gordon said we were ALL there!(Thanx again to John Leader)

BD

The truck needs the following...

Exahaust: catalytic converter, muffler, tail pipe and hangers...$940 ($450 just for the cat)
Universal joints on the driveshaft...$278 (may be under warrenty)
Complete tune up & throttle body service (needed due to cat replacement)...$250+$115

Total: $1583.85

Wish all this was done before the trip...oh well.


Jerome

Sounds like someone needs to start shopping for a dual-exit exhaust and a set of flowmasters for the Dakota... ;-)

Give it a little more rumble, and it would probably be cheaper to boot...

*pinky to mouth*

Chris